The jobs market continues to be one of the more perplexing points of contention in the Australian economy. Jobs growth has soared — around 400,000 new jobs created in the past year — while wages growth and the unemployment keep plodding along the same uninspired path. A new set of jobs numbers out this week are not expected to change perceptions. The consensus view is another 20,000 or so new jobs and the unemployment rate will be stuck around 5.5 per cent. The year kicked off with a solid 16,000 jobs in January. It was more than double that in December. Unemployment ticked down, but that was largely due to a fall in ... (full story)